Review: The Force Awakens

I love this movie.

I'd forgotten what a shot of adrenaline The Force Awakens was. Finn's character, his bromance with Poe, Adam Driver's ironically wonderful performance of Kylo Ren...

The Force Awakens might just be my favorite Star Wars film.

I actually struggle to find things to say about it, other than to sing its praises. The score is great, the writing is great, the effects are great, the characters are great, the sets are great, the action scenes are great... The Force Awakens is, to me, the platonic ideal of what a Star Wars film should be.

What's really left is to talk about all the ways it improves on things. Practical and digital effects are blended together much better here, Han Solo's characterization is much better, and inf fact he's so much more likable that the death blow really does feel like a character cut down before his time.

It's not perfect. I mean, the flaws are so petty and small in comparison to how much about this film that works that it's hard to even ask what flaws. Maz Katana is kind of a handwave on Luke's lightsaber, there's at least one character at the beginning of the film played by a notable actor who seems like he'll be important only to die almost immediately, there's a will they won't they romantic subtext to Finn and Rey's relationship that's not going anywhere any time soon but... It's just so hard to care. The Force Awakens is funny and clever and interesting and the production value is sky-high. It feels like such an effortless slam dunk that you kind of forget all the crap that it's plastering over from sequel creep.

I love this movie.

I'd go as far as to say that if you only ever watch one Star Wars film, this one should be it.

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Review: Revenge Of The Sith

Sad to end the prequel trilogy on this note but Revenge Of The Sith was frankly the least enjoyable film I watched of the bunch.

Unlike other films, which pleasantly surprised me with their level of quality, Revenge Of The Sith simply had beats I was looking forward to and a lot of dead air in between.

I think part of it is that even the cast was feeling fatigued at this point. Coming out in 2005 with Phantom Menace premiering in '99, I'd wager at least six years of their lives were dedicated to films they had less and less investment in. Natalie Portman seems like she's phoning in all but one scene and I can't blame her because a previously kick-ass Padme is turned into kind of a background damsel in this film.

The core of the film, Obi-Wan and Anakin's fallout, is perhaps the strongest part and the scenes on Mustafar are genuinely where the film hits its strides but it was surprising how tempted I was to just... Skip to the good bit. From Anakin's actual turn to that climactic conversation requires almost an hour of long investigation and betrayal and logistics that I'd actually yelled out "Go cut that man's legs off already!" at my screen.

And it is a lengthy experience, a 2-hour 20-minute film which feels like 3. It's not the longest Star Wars film, The Last Jedi is 2 hours and 32 minutes and Attack of the Clones is actually a longer film at 2 hours 22 minutes but this is the one which I felt could be tightened up the most. Personally, I think below 130 minutes is the best length for a Star Wars film but your mileage may vary.

It's not unwatchable but if anything, I'd say skim the progress bar on this one. It's kind of predictable and it really feels like it's just going through the motions, so rather than sit through minutes of fluff, it's best to be your own director here.

And that concludes it. Six films, two trilogies, and it's not like I came out with some grand revelation. I actually don't really feel more or less love for the series at the end, and while there were some pleasant surprises the most poignant thing I can say about Star Wars is that it consistently plays out like commercial genre fiction, and for what it is... That's fine. I think we keep trying to attach this grand narrative to Star Wars when in truth, it probably has more in common with contemporaries than people would like to admit. Influence might make for a legacy and intrigue but when you get down to brass tacks, what you're left with is a set of above-average fantasy films that use the aesthetics of science fiction to tell a straight-up heroes tale.

And I think that because of that, we shouldn't take it too seriously.

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Review: Attack Of The Clones

Well. Shit.

I think I really liked this one.

I can't really say what it was about Attack Of The Clones that I enjoyed more than... Well, the rest of the films but part of me thinks it's just because of how much this film crams in. The over-the-top sequence on Geonosis, every scene Dooku is in, the special effects, Jango Fett, it's the first time we get to see Yoda fight...

There is just so much to like.

You know, if I think about it, I can't really say I remember a lot of discourse about Attack Of The Clones. It's pretty influential, it decided the end of a trilogy and spawned two separate Clone Wars cartoons so... It's just a little weird that it's not more beloved.

I've heard some critics call it an overcorrection from The Phantom Menace which I can confidently say might be for the best. It has its problems, it's overly long, Anakin and Padme have as much chemistry as tap water, Dooku shows up 75% into the film and that's a supreme waste of Sir Christopher Lee, Hayden Christensen tries and fails to deliver anything close to a film carrying performance, but considering the god-awful lines he gets you can't really blame him and the film is long, it's so long...

But that all seems kind of trivial.

Do I think it's the best film? I don't know. I'd genuinely say though that it ranks higher than most. It might even be the highlight of the prequel trilogy.

But for now, that's really all I have to say on that. I encourage you to give the film a second look if you haven't in a while. You might be pleasantly surprised.

Next up is Revenge Of The Sith and I'm excited. I think I might even be sad to say goodbye to the prequel trilogy but I'm happy to just be into Star Wars again. We'll see how long that lasts.

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Review: Return Of The Jedi

Return Of The Jedi was the film I feared rewatching the most, it's the one I've built up a fair amount of animosity towards over the years.

But despite all that I think I actually enjoyed it more than I thought I would.

It's still plagued by the same problem as all the original trilogy films, being overlong with flat characters and the Ewoks still test me and the first act is only marginally connected to the core crux of the film as it resolves plot points from the previous movie. Boba Fett goes out kind of like a chump despite how much he's hyped up and there is all kinds of grossness involved with Leia.

But despite all that I really did end up having a good time with it.

I think the speeder scene on the moon of Endor really does still hold up, I love the battle between Luke and Vader and how the film's resolution doesn't rest on simply that might is right but that these two beings driven into conflict have to look deep inside themselves and question their base assumptions about the world.

I was surprised at how hard that beat hits.

This might end up being the most positive review I'm going to do of the series and I'm glad there were still a couple surprises left for me at the end of it all.

Now there are only the prequels, sequels and spin-offs left and for the first time in a while... It feels good to watch Star Wars again.

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Review: Empire Strikes Back

Empire is the awkward middle child of the Original Trilogy and it shows.

My biggest takeaway ended up being how much I started waiting for things to happen. Waiting for Luke's training to be over, waiting for Han and Leia to get to Cloud City, waiting for Boba to finally chase after them...

I think there was supposed to be a more quiet, meditative quality to Empire but I think it's just filled with a lot of dead air.

What I did end up liking was the battle against the walkers on Hoth, I still think it's the best part of the film and once we're in Cloud City, Lando's inclusion is genuinely welcome. I like his character a lot, an old gambler and outlaw who started an operation that might be extra-legal but it put pressure on him to grow and become dependable. That's neat. That's a neat character arc.

Overall I think I found Empire easier to get through, I think less bloat in the narrative compared to A New Hope makes it an easier watch.

More of Han and Leia's garbage romance does mean that I seriously start questioning whether or not the straights are okay but I'm not here for epic romance. Star Wars is bad at romance. To this day the only people who have genuine chemistry in this whole franchise are Obi and Ventress so take that for what it's worth.

I think one of the weaker points of the film is that when you already know the Luke and Vader reveal, it's robbed of a lot of cinematic intrigue. A lot of the beats don't land because they're undercooked and while the actors are trying their best to sell these performances, it's in the service of material that doesn't do them justice. The Original Trilogy seems far better at grand ideas and special effects than it is at quieter character moments.

I did like old as fuck Yoda who is a little loopy. I actually forgot how the prequels and clone wars made him look all wise and serious when Yoda's actually more of a goofy grandfather muppet type. Things that were lost, I guess.

I'm going to wrap it up here, there are more films to go through and I don't want to spend too much time dissecting them. I'm going to restate what I said about A New Hope that there just isn't as much in the original trilogy that sticks out in my mind. The flaws might actually make the prequels more memorable and I think I end up enjoying them more because of that.

Not looking forward to Return of the Jedi though. Never really liked Ewoks. Ugly little toothy dog-bears that they are.

Jawas don't get enough love.

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Review: A New Hope

A New Hope is one of those films I have very little to say about.

It's well made, a classic and it earns its place in the pantheon of must-watch films but if I go purely by my enjoyment of my time with it, I can sincerely say it wasn't as fun or interesting as I'd hoped it to be.

This isn't my first rodeo, I watched A New Hope back as a child and over the years it's been kept fresh in my memory through cultural osmosis but I'd lie if I said it was something I was aching to go back to.

Whereas I'm surprised at how much I ended up enjoying The Phantom Menace upon repeat viewing, A New Hope I was startlingly apathetic towards.

I think a part of it is how some beats just don't connect with me. My particular standout is Luke finding the corpses of his aunt and uncle, a clearly traumatic and life-changing moment... But it's never mentioned save for one moment after it happens. Luke losing the only parental figures he's ever known is treated like getting begrudged permission to leave home. The lightsaber duel between Ben and Vader felt more flaccid and limp than ever. Han Solo's once-charming mischief comes off as boarish and the casual sexism that goes unchallenged kind of left a bad taste in my mouth.

Other problems also crop up, but I'll get to those in a bit. If I had to describe my experience in microcosm it's that partway through I'd just.. Walked away. Seriously, I walked away to go to the bathroom and for 45 minutes just forgot to come back. Perhaps in '78 it was a breath of fresh air for genre films but with my current taste and having lived out two decades of watching sci-fi, it just doesn't feel as monumental as some make it out to be.

Still, I didn't hate the film. It was perfectly watchable. Not a revelatory film experience, actually, the mundanity of it all kind of seeped in and it just felt like I was watching a decent pilot episode for a TV show I had a passing interest in.

The flaws of A New Hope are mundane. They're... Barely worth talking about.

One thing the prequel trilogy does have is flaws worth talking about and I think both as a critic and an audience member I'd prefer a film that has a couple noteworthy flaws than a film that's decently good, perhaps even great but has just very little to leave behind when the credits roll.

Still, I welcome the rest of the films as a chance to re-examine this pop culture giant.

Perhaps I'll rediscover what it is that attracted me to these films in the first place.

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Review: The Phantom Menace

Episode 1 of Star Wars is kind of the holy grail of bad Star Wars movies. Between Jar Jar Binks and overly explained Mido-Chlorians, you'd be hard pressed to find anyone disagreeing that it's bad.

So uh, here's a lukewarm defense of it.

I'm not going to say it isn't flawed or that there aren't major problems. Anakin kind of fails upwards, and despite the majority of the plot hinging on Padme she ends up taking a back seat for most of the film. There are 55 separate wipe transitions, Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan are clearly the people who matter here but they have to constantly share screen time with unlikeable CGI monstrosities and well... You know. The accents.

There are reasons to dislike this film.

But I was surprised at how much I didn't end up hating it on rewatch. I ended up liking it a lot more than I thought. The stuff that holds up still does. Pod Racing is great, Obi and QG versus Darth Maul is great, in fact any time Obi and QG are on screen together it's a pretty fun ride.

Coming back to anything after a long hiatus is kind of a tough feat and no one really knows what the best way to go about it is. I think The Force Awakens had more success than The Phantom Menace in that regard but it's clear just how many kinks the original trilogy left to iron out, and while The Phantom Menace is definitely not the answer, I do think it was at least a great shot in the arm for the franchise.

It's a little hard to quantify where I'd put it now. It's not a great film but I also don't think it's an unsaveably bad one. A couple edits here and there could easily put The Phantom Menace as one of the best Star Wars films of all time, but personally, the less George Lucas touches Star Wars, the better at this point.

If you haven't seen it, I'd still recommend it, if you haven't seen it in a while, I think you'll be surprised at how much holds up but either way, don't expect it to blow your mind. It's the phantom fucking menace, so, you know.

Prepare for all that entails.

55 wipes, man. Someone needs to bat Lucas's hand from the keyboard.

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