We Agree: Star Wars Ep9: Rise of the Skywalker

2019, JJ Abrams (Star Trek) -- Cinema

Yes, I know and I prefer my way of (mis)spelling the movie title; just cuz.

I told myself, and Kent in comments, that I c/would not write about this movie yet as I was just not sure and not until I had seen it another time. But that is not likely to happen any time soon, so here I am writing down some thoughts. Thoughts that are along the line of We Agree.

So, recap (well, personal not previous movies). I am the guy who really enjoys Ep1: The Phantom Menace. But I rather despise the next two movies in the prequel trilogy, so much so that I rarely re-watch them. For some reason, I have never done a ReWatch tagged write up of the primary centre mass of the movies, but I am that guy who remembers the lead-up and the utter joy at seeing the original movie, tagging along with my older brother Kenny, when I was 10 years old. I am A Fan. Thus, Ep7 was OK, I liked humming the familiar tune, but I missed getting goosebumps from the opening brass. And I was definitely in one of the minorities (not often a Straight White Cis Guy can say that) in that I really really liked Ep8. I cannot argue the fanboys for not liking it, and prefer to not acknowledge the frothing neckbeards for the hate. I really need to post a ReWatch to cover my feelings on it, as I saw it during The Great Hiatus of Late 2017 Early 2018.

So, the one sentence summary, considering I am still in the Only Seen It Once state? It was fine, it was just fine. Yeah, that is probably my greatest issue with it, in that is was just fine.

So, recap. Proper recap. Luke is dead, most of the Resistance is dead (massive side note: I had to do some wiki reading to understand exactly why there was even a Resistance when this trilogy began. If the Empire was defeated, and the New Republic was in charge, who were they resisting? Wouldn't they just be policing the Galaxy? Well, when the First Order began rising, the New Republic did little to stop them. Let them be, they thought, they can have the fringe worlds and we will rule ours. But being a galactic bureaucracy just led to them appearing weak in the eyes of many worlds, which then decided (or were forced) to secede to the First Order. The New Republic continued to turn a blind eye, so thus rose The Resistance, to actively defend against the depredations of the New/Old Empire), the New Republic themselves are dead, Snoke is dead, Han is dead and any allies the Resistance had seemingly turned away. Ben/Ren is in charge of the First Order. All seems rather bleak.

***SPOILY SPOIL SPOILERS***

We begin with Ben Ren finding a magic triangle, that reminded me somewhat of the magical sphere that Starlord finds in Guardians of the Galaxy Pt 1. But this one leads him to a hidden planet where (OMINOUS MUSIC !!) he finds the barely living corpse of Darth Sidious himself, Emperor Palpatine. Oooooo, Fanboys had a theory on the Internet and got sooooo pissy when things didn't lead that way, so Insert One Sheev Palpatine (his name is Sheev?!?!?) as the Big Bad, the guy who created Snoke but who really wanted Kylo Ren to join the Dark Side, and rule at his side. Also, Palpatine was able to secretly build a fleet of classic Star Destroyers without anyone finding his secret planet. Even if he did it Ancient Pharoah style and killed the builders after they were finished, I am sure someone would notice the loss of an engineering force large enough to create THOUSANDS of Star Destroyers, let alone the depletion of resources for it. But who cares, come stand by my side, hisses Emperor Space Zombie.

Back in Resistance Town, the Good Guys are learning the Deep Dark Secret at pretty much the same time as we are, and they also learn the only way to find him is via the Magic Triangle. Now, off on a Quest to find the only other MT. Don't get me wrong, Quests are fun, in the grand Star Wars tradition, and everyone gets to go together and see new, albeit another desert, planets. The first acts of the movie are just fun fun fun, But if The Force Awakens hummed a familiar tone, The Rise of Skywalker was performing an updated cover of the original tune. This is everything all the Fanboys wanted, including the retcon-ing of decisions made in the last, so that People Get What They Wanted.

The only clue to where the Magical Triangle might be is the last known location of a "Jedi Hunter". After a first unfortunate encounter with Ren, where Rey reveals (to the audience, really) her connection to Palpatine, via a blast of Force Lightning. After that, and a cryptic clue on a dagger (how D&D), the next step is now hidden inside C3PO, but locked behind a directive he cannot contradict without a mind wipe. It's a false device for dramatic effect, but it does address whether droids are considers "people" or not. There is tragedy in him losing his mind, but there is more weight to them choosing to not do it without consent. And the clue is revealed; the Magical Triangle is inside the ruins of the Death Star 2. An end of Act 2 battle between Rey and Ren continues the love / hate / goo goo eyes between the two, but does culminate in an act of compassion. Alas it also dashes the Key to the Planet of the Sith.

As Kent pointed out, so so much happens in this movie, that we rarely get a moment to rest and recupe, rarely do we get a moment to consider what has gone on so far. Its all rushing towards a final confrontation, a final ending to this trilogy, a final ending to Old Republic vs New Republic, Empire vs Resistance, Rey vs Ren, etc. etc. A final ending to nine movies. And I guess we get exactly what we wanted. We get the end of Palpatine, for real this time. We get the story of Rey they all wanted. They. We get an end to Kylo Ren and for a brief moment, a redemption arc for Ben Solo. We get Poe's acknowledgement of his own over confidence, which can only be redeemed when he relies on others. We even get a kiss and a laugh between Rey and Ben.

But did I get a satisfactory ending. Again, I am not entirely sure yet. Maybe we will know when I do the ReWatch.

3+1 Short Paragraphs: Ready Player One

2018, Steven Spielberg (Jurassic Park, AI) -- cinema

I didn't know this book was so divisive until they announced Spielberg was adapting. Suddenly, a book that I saw as a fun and inventive romp focused on an obsession with 80s pop culture, primarily geek culture became the source of derision and controversy. Sure it's empty, sure its pandering and maybe the characters are not exactly paragons of virtue, but when are they? Anywayz, I am the exact demographic for this kind of story, as I grew up in the 80s and geek culture was my culture. And that also makes me the demographic for the movie, and also, who better to do it than an icon of that era himself -- Spielberg!

Wade Watts is growing up in The Stacks, the 2040s American version of tower blocks made up from mobile homes stacked on top of each other in precarious frames. This is pure dystopia, where people survive a horrible world set against them and escape into an ultimate VR experience called The Oasis. In case you are wondering how poor people can access a wonder of technology, remember even homeless people have smart phones today. The founder of The Oasis has died, and he has left behind the ultimate game -- a hunt for an in-game Easter Egg where the finder gets control of  his company. Of course, an Evil Corporation (IOI) wants that control so they can make even more money off it, and they are not afraid to hurt Wade and his friends as they hunt for the egg.

Despite The Oasis being created by a man who was obsessed only with his own childhood, Spielberg's is littered with other references to geek culture reaching out past the 80s. Identifying those references in the book was the fun part, and catching all the (expanded) references in the movie is again the fun bit. And that's all there is here -- a fun adventure romp for those who like geek infused adventure. And there is nothing wrong with that. You cannot make me feel bad about that.

If I was disappointed in anything about the movie, it was that it dispensed with the D&D heavy elements from the novel to add in more straightly familiar video game and movie references. The Tomb of Horrors is replaced by a racing game, War Games by an impressive recreation of The Shining and the rest all leading to an old Atari game at the centre of a FPS battle world. But again, I remind I am the demographic, so I loved it even with the straight forward plot and execution.

And yes, I saw the sticker on the back of Aech's postal truck.

ReWatch: Wing Commander

1999, Chris Roberts --- Netflix

Speaking of video stores; this one was a big renter back in the day. Clunky space opera was always a good renter, whether they were Star Wars or substandard wannabes. I recalled enjoying it in the theatre despite accepting it was rather bad. But it was space opera based on a video game series I loved, so I was there. The thing is, I am kind of surprised it was 1999. That was when I was still in Montreal but it looks so so dated, I just kind of assumed it was back from my Ottawa mid-90s days.

Wing Commander grew from a desire to make Top Gun, in space. The idea of transplanting aircraft carriers and destroyers into space is a pretty standard trope, as big heavy "boats" fit into the mindset of space battles. But this one wanted the hotshots and the deck crashes and the competing egos of all the dogfight movies. And wrapped around it was a pretty decent world building of a deep space war between humans and the cat-like Kilrathi. The games were only about space bound dogfighting, so of course its not difficult to be true to the source, but the creator of the games, who also directs the movie, decided to seed in even more world building and added an additional conflict along religious lines -- the Pilgrims. They were a "race" of humans descended from the original space farers, who had warred against other humans, after they became too full of themselves. The movie uses them as an excuse for emotional baggage and personal conflict, but not much else. Shame.

The movie is terribly dated, from the washed out CGI on bluescreen effects, to the barely passable acting. You have so many familiar faces, from the edgy in their day Tchéky Karyo and Jürgen Prochnow, to the lovely mugs of Saffron Burrows and Freddie Prinze Jr. And somehow they actually made Matthew Lillard a tough guy. This is before Scooby Doo.  Despite this damning recollection, I really do believe this movie was partly inspirational for the way they envisioned the new Battlestar Galactica. There is just a feel that actually carries from this movie onto the popular TV show, and while you may say it was probably more the other way around (original series influencing this later movie), its only five years later that BSG becomes a thing.

One Episode: Gotham, Scorpion, Forever

Ooooo Gotham (Fox, Donal Logue, Ben McKenzie), ooooo all the villains in younger forms, ooo its young Bruce Wayne. That's it, that is why I didn't give a hoot about this show -- why would I want to watch a Batman show without even the possibility of a Batman? Sure, Gotham is a character unto itself, the deeper, darker version of Manhattan with all those elevated trains and a corrupt police force & government. But even the promotional campaign annoyed me, as they dropped hints about incidental characters who we know would grow up to be big players, such as Selina Kyle the street kid or Ivy, the daughter of a thug who hides behind her potted plants. And all that, "Which one is the Joker? Is it the standup comedian??" So, I was not looking forward to this show.

But surprisingly, I was not all that bothered by the first episode. This is tooled for the fans of Arrow, with a sort of drama light. Gotham is gritty and dirty, but not so much so that its always night. And honestly, anything with Donal Logue is going to have me watch at least occasionally. But really, it was Ben McKenzie sporting a confounding tough-guy accent (did I catch hints of growly Christian Bale?) and the clear values of Jim Gordon that made me enjoy it. There is no way he can clean up the entire city or even the GCPD in the first season, but I was happy to be convinced he will try. But with a level head on his shoulders, not all gung ho, "You guys are all corrupt, I am gonna take you down !!"

I will probably watch a few episodes until I get bored or more annoyed by the references.

Meanwhile we have mostly no names in Scorpion (CBS, Elyes Gabel, Katharine McPhee, Robert Patrick). Billed as a non-comedic version of The Big Bang Theory (because we always have to provide common ground) with overly intelligent, socially inept people who are gathered together to save the world each week, this was not as terrible as I expected it to be.

Oh, it was pretty bad. We have a white male math genius, a white male psychology genius, a white male (but Irish, ooo the ethnicity !) genius genius (one of the 5 smartest people in the world) and a wh...er, Asian female technology genius.  Token smart girl has to be Asian. So, one understands numbers, one people, one machines and the last is smart enough to know everything. Together they are smarter than all of us (I mean all of us) but they cannot pay their bills or keep relationships because they are emotionally crippled. Like a room full of Sheldons.

Except, they are not. Main character Walter O'Brien is well dressed, obviously works out, has friends and at every turn is cracking smiles, connecting with people and understanding the emotional impact of what he is doing. But they add the occasional interpersonal flub to remind us. And the math genius can talk to pretty girls; now THAT was the most unrealistic bit.

They are gathered by blacksuit Robert Patrick (Homeland Security, NSA, something like that does not matter) to save a bunch of planes that cannot land because of a virus in the LAX air traffic system. No one can get hold of the planes and they would rather them be blown out of the sky than attempt dangerous landings.  ??!?!

But all together, this silliness was kind of fun. The tech talk is your typical mix of technical bullshit with a dose of truth so it sound real. Their solutions are way over the top (such as connecting a network cable from a low flying plane to a speeding car) and the interactions are fun. I could actually enjoy this, as long it doesn't ever try to take itself too seriously.

P.S. The show is also stylishly titled as </scorpion>. Uh, closing a tag to connect something to tech is soooo 10 years ago. And its not even proper syntax. <scorpion /> would have been more appropriate.

Speaking of common ground, I can hear the elevator pitch for Forever (ABC, Ioan Gruffudd, Alana de la Garza, Judd Hirsch). Its Castle meets Bones meets Elementary meets New Amsterdam. That's alot of meeting. So, we have the cop & non-cop partnership, charming and well dressed. We have Dr. Henry Morgan as a coroner / medical examiner, who also happens to have a Sherlock style of noticing details about people & situations. And finally, most importantly, he is immortal. If he dies, he instantly appears nearby, naked, in a body of water.

Now, given it has the directing and writing style of Castle, I am built to find it appealing. Surprisingly, Gruffudd who has annoyed me in movies past, is becoming rather charming as he grows older. And the relationship between him and Judd Hirsch just seals that for me. You see, Hirsch is effectively his son, adopted in the 40s and the two have been together since. Abe has aged but Henry is still late 30s. But the two display such a bond, inter-changing father and son, as the situation plays.

The story of how he became immortal is somewhat explained, but with enough mystery to play out for a few seasons. Also, Henry has a "fan", possibly another immortal who is taunting him. As long as they don't end up with tons of mythology, which overshadows the buddy cop show, it could last awhile.

Of the three, I think Scorpion will die the quickest. Despite being on Fox, Gotham will have the most support and it will be up to Forever to find an audience to stick around.

Godzilla

2014, Gareth Edwards (Monsters) -- cinema

The first thing I noticed is that the new Godzilla is so very much the product of Gareth Edwards. But only in a way that people who saw, and enjoyed, Monsters would notice. It was the subtle things, like the looks on people's faces when they looked at the towering creatures over your right shoulder, or the way something so large could disappear into the background if the lighting was not quite right. And the silences. Whether realistic or not, Edwards makes such wonderful use of silences in his movies where there must be so much of a cacophony at all times.  The second thing I noticed was how much he wore his appreciation for other Giant Monster movies on his sleeve. You could see stylistic elements from Cloverfield, Pacific Rim, original Godzilla movies and, yes, even the much hated previous American Godzilla movie. He is probably like me, just in love with the genre and able to see the successes in even the worst considered examples.

I wanted to say this is not a reboot of the Godzilla franchise but really its not a re-imagining but probably does fit within the confines of a reboot. It is not the continuance of the series of Japanese movies, i.e. we are not picking up where a previous movie ended. Gojira or Godzilla is not a known entity, but we are given some background material to show that the Japanese are aware of him. In fact, they teamed with the US to bomb the @!$& of him in the 50s, thus the Bikini Atoll "tests". But he is not known outside of this hidden history. Subsequently the Japanese discovered the remains of other such creatures and had been studying them for decades, an unfortunate decision that leads to the plot of the movie. The discovered eggs hatch into a MUTO (massive unknown terrestrial organism) and they wreak havoc on populated areas. Godzilla awakens from his sleep in the Pacific, not killed as they previously thought, and seeks out his natural prey. Chaos ensues.

The stylistic choice that I love about this movie is that Godzilla and the monsters are presented as natural disasters. Oh, there is a bit of anthropomorphization of the beasts, especially in the antagonistic way they react to each other, but for the most part we watch from afar, as the monsters wade through, ignoring the humans and destroying all in their path.  These things are happening and humans just happen to be in the way. For the most part, all we can do is run, hide and watch.

If the movie suffered from anything, it was a choice of choppiness in its story telling. The overly long intro, which felt like an extended bit part for Bryan Cranston, leads to a monster chase that is constantly jumping from one scene to the next, one geographical location to the next. The human element is there, giving us a military character to follow along behind the monsters trying to be balanced by a moreso extraneous civilian character that has Elizabeth Olsen contributing only a "look up scared" performance.  I am thinking a more ensemble cast, like in Battle Los Angeles, would have tightened up this story thread but even so, I so so much enjoyed this movie.

There is just so much scale to this movie, angles that are breath taking, destruction that is awesome (full of awe, not totally cool, man) that we are given over to what Kent mentioned, seeing things from security monitors and TV screens. It is a way for our brain to digest the sheer magnitude of what is happening, or at the very least, this is what Edwards was alluding to. I would love to see some post-movie web series that are made up on phone cam, Twitter posts and YouTube videos of the events.

Geek Cred: Rock Jocks & Knights of Badassdom

 Is it a good sign when a movie doesn't yet have any Rotten Tomatoes ratings and I saw it months ago? I guess "leaking" it on the internet was not such a good idea. I readily admit; the only reason I saw Rock Jocks (2012, Paul V. Seetachitt), a scifi comedy meant for geeks, was Felicia Day. Unfortunately, if you extract her, there is no reason to see this terrible terrible movie.

Seetachitt wants to be a new Kevin Smith, creating an irreverent indie movie full of slackers we are supposed to root for when the shit hits the fan. The particular shit is that they may lose their jobs to government cutbacks, a job of shooting asteroids out of the sky. Yes, an idea extracted from an 80s video game, and that the sort of witty point -- everything looks and feels like an out of date video game, as the whole system was designed 40 years ago. The staff actually are slacker gamers so when The Man comes along and wants to shut them down, its up to them to prove their mettle against the expected big rock that shows up.

The movie feels like a long webisode,  low budget and a handful of recognizable faces in supporting roles. You probably haven't heard of the stars, besides Felicia Day. There are a few gems of line, but not much at all to like. Maybe I have matured? Maybe I like some substance to my geek material? I think I just like some wit to my lines and in the absent of presentation, I want brilliance in the scripting, not just sub-par.

Now, if this was a well rounded review, I would come along and say, "Now, conversely, if you want a great geek movie with recognizable people, brilliant acting, a great plot and a Hollywood budget, I would watch Knights of Badassdom (2013, Joe Lynch) !!"  Unfortunately, I cannot say that either.  Harrumph.

I have been waiting for this movie all year(s). The trailers started coming out ... three (?!?!) years ago after debuting at Comic-Con and after the usual production delays, and some apparently nasty post production delays, the movie is coming out.  Soonish. One of the rumors around the delays, is that the movie was taken out of the director's hands and chopped to bits by producers and distributors. Honestly, I think it shows.

This is an exquisitely brilliant ultra-geeky plot. Joe, an ex-D&Der (Ryan Kwanten), now into black metal and car repair, is dumped by his GF. Eric, his best friend and roommate (Steve Zahn) never grew out of the gamer psyche (like many of us) and is a weekend LARPer. He and the third of their triad, Hung (Peter Dinklage), drag Joe off to a weekend of ultimate LARPing so Joe can experience Eric finally levelling his wizard character, and get over his GF. Eric has even brought along a new spell book, to add some authenticity to his spell casting. Said spell book is a real spell book and they summon a demon. As the friends fight it off, they are supported by Summer Glau and Danny Pudi.

Brilliant ultra-geeky plot, you ask? Straight-to-DVD plot more likely, right? Its brilliant in its simplicity, smacking back to the gamer geek's love of 80s horror movies. This is all cliches with sexy demons and lost in the woods characters and overly violent jocks who want to ruin the fun. But this is real LARPing depicted -- not some Hollywood mockery of it. Oh its, mocked, as LARPing is not for every gamer (i hate it, in fact) but its all done lovingly and with knowledge. Everyone in this movie plays true to their roles as pretend heroes having to become real heroes.

But, but but. There is a problem somewhere in this movie. Perhaps the wrong scenes were edited together, perhaps the script wasn't tightened enough and perhaps it was cut short of desperately needed connecting material but something fell flat, something felt missing. So many of the individual parts were great fun and made me smile, but it never came together. This was supposed to come across as a labour of love, done by and for geeks.  It felt almost like they wanted it watered down for the general audience. It ends up failing for both audiences.