You may want this if you have a bent to media consumption like me:
I broadly agree. I think the worst missteps in the prequels were midichlorians and that the dialogue that should have built Anakin’s story into something relatable and moving was roundly bungled. Also, was it a story that needed telling? Throwaway lines about clone wars meant more to me as a kid with an imagination than anything they ever could have executed. It was a story that wanted selling though and that’s the world we’re in.
One lens I’ve used for the prequels is the certain point of view thing. I play in my head that the prequels are unreliably narrated by Anakin. It’s what he tells himself. At its darkest I’ve often considered what if that star fighter never actually took off at Naboo? What would a kid just pulled out of slavery need to cope if the wise old savior locked him in a cockpit and never came back?
Short version: I approve of all things Star Wars at this point other than Revenge of the Sith and Rise of Skywalker and I dislike both of those because the execution overall feels sloppy. But of those two Rise of Skywalker is an exponentially goofier mess and I’d guess it’s because of too many hands in it at every step of the way and because even a great film from 1977 is a thin reed on which to hang that much money and attention.
Addendum: yes I approve of the Ewoks TV movies and the Droids cartoon and the Marvel comic. Because I enjoyed those back when. I checked out of the EU from 1993 on so I’ve got no dogs in that hunt.
And this is your friendly reminder that while the events of Andor season 1 were occurring Noa Briqualon (Wilfred Brimley) had been crash landed on Endor for around 21 years. Have some Quaker Oats.
Today was part 1 of Barbenheimer (part 2 will be on Tuesday).
I have lots of thoughts, mixed feelings. Some things it did terrifically well. Some things were a bit muddled and disjointed. Casting was all spot on. Costume and sets were incredible. Some brilliant off the wall jokes I didn’t expect at all. All in all, it was full of great ideas, but needed some more time to make the script a coherent story.
Slight spoiler - nothing plot-wise, just general structure:
By the end it all but gave up being a work of fiction and turned into a Ted talk. And that’s not an exaggeration. A 15-20 minute monologue that is lazily cut up and given to 4 or 5 different characters to try and make it less onerous (resulting in the film having more false endings than Lord of the Rings).
Watched four movies in a single week! In chronological order:
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse: Fantastic in almost every regard (a bit too much reliance on telling instead of showing that sags the middle), but man does this not feel like a complete movie. It’s weird because I feel like there are two or three points near the end that would feel more like a full “arc + cliffhanger” movie, but the point where they decided to cut is crazy abrupt. I know some people consider it a spoiler to mention this is only half of a two-part movie, but (a) it’s been publicly known for a while now, and (b) if I entered the theater expecting a full film I would have left very annoyed, so I think it’s necessary information. As it is, the movie’s great, but cut at a baffling point.
Oppenheimer: Doing Barbenheimer in reverse! The most surprising part of this one is how pacy it is; I really didn’t feel the 3-hour runtime until the last 20 minutes or so, and that’s a very deliberate slowdown to help convey a large quantity of information. Other than that, it was largely what I expected–excellent, but not tremendously surprising. That said, the use of sound is especially evocative, and is at least 50% responsible for my enjoyment.
Barbie: Really liked it! Call me a rube, but this did not feel like the 2-hour-long Barbie commercial I’ve seen it described as. The plot is so critical of its subject matter at every turn that I can’t think of a kid leaving the theater thinking “Barbie is awesome”–and more to the point, I can’t imagine an adult leaving the theater thinking “my kid should have a Barbie.” There is quite a bit of monologuing near the end, but I think it works in context. It reminds me of the novel The Female Man–in both, a woman born and raised outside the patriarchal societal norms needs to directly explained what it’s like to be a “modern woman,” because the reality of it is nonsensical and upsetting. It’s one of those things that seems unnecessary to people who already agree with it, but for the character of Barbie it needs to be carefully laid out to “make sense”.
Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny: Not bad! Solidly in the middle of the pack, better than the two bad ones and worse than the two good ones. I might have ranked it higher but for two reasons: 1) I like Indiana Jones better when it’s more historically “grounded”, and this was fairly fantastical, and 2) at least two interesting characters are introduced in this film and criminally, almost offensively, under-utilized. Phoebe Waller-Bridge is a delight, and I would love to see more adventure movies with her in the leading role, but aside from her the new characters are wasted.
I have Oppenheimered. I dug it. No Demon Core criticality and no “now we are all sons of bitches” but also no significant hagiography. Einstein is the only historical figure that seems to have reached the point of having to be a character and not being allowed to be a person.
Well, that show was terrible. The actors were all great, especially Kingsley Ben-Adir and (no surprise) Olivia Coleman, and the Fury kitchen table scene was excellent, but the rest of the writing was absolutely awful.
And the end of ep1 was so bad that I want someone fired so that the industry just stops doing it ever again. I’m annoyed I gave them my viewing clicks now.
On the other hand, Will Trent on Disney is really good, and The Lincoln Lawyer on Netflix is quite fun. (It should be, it’s David E Kelley who has been doing tv so long he could make an okay show in his sleep).
Yep. First heard of them when they were the only ones to release Robin of Sherwood on dvd in 2002, which meant you didn’t need an entire shelf of VHS from eBay, and some of their other releases were amazing lost itv stuff.
In a surprising turn of events, my first time at the movies since the Pandemic(1) was last night with a friend to see the Barbie movie.
I never played with Barbies (at home) because my mom hated them. I had legos and books instead and my friends’ daughters these days also don’t get to have Barbies. They get “My little Pony” and “Playmobil for Girls” and my friends complain that toys have once again split into girl and boy toys… there is even pink lego now. There is more money to be made that way.
I went to the movie because I heard people whose opinions I regard highly talk about it and that it wasn’t what I would expect. If I had not heard anything about the movie it would definitely have subverted my expectations. I found it was good entertainment. The “messaging” is quite on the nose, anything but subtle and yet there is not clear singular thing I took from it except that pink is a great color (I actually like pink especially in combination with black). I am not quite done processing in which box I’ll put it. But it was enjoyable, funny at times and overall I don’t regret going to see it.
Best moment was the red/blue pill scene. To think, I almost put on my Birkenstocks to go see the movie.
Obviously, now I have to get my partner to go see Oppenheimer (which is more what I wanted to see). I losely followed Peaky Blinders (when my partner was watching it) and I just want to see more of Thomas Shelby
(1) come fall I’ll certainly carry around a mask again.
and my friends complain that toys have once again split into girl and boy toys… there is even pink lego now. There is more money to be made that way.