Thursday, April 16, 2020

The MCU Killed Star Wars

Controversial opinion time: The Marvel Cinematic Universe killed Star Wars, at least the sequel movies.

I think that the major issue with the Sequel Trilogy (Episodes 7, 8, and 9) is the fact that they aren't cohesive. The Force Awakens set some stuff up, The Last Jedi took that set-up and twisted some things around, and then The Rise Of Skywalker threw out a good amount of what was done in TLJ. Love them, hate them, or have a more nuanced opinion on them, you have to admit that there's some major inconsistency there and it makes the movies poorer for it.

The reason for this, in my opinion as a complete outsider, is that Disney saw what was going well over at Marvel Studios and decided to be hands off with the production. The problem is that Kathleen Kennedy, while a great executive, was also being a bit too hands off as well, letting the directors run each film as they saw fit. Over at Marvel you have Kevin Feige who takes a more active hand in the movies. Directors can do pretty much what they want, but are given constraints to work within. Since there's a connected universe, MCU movies have to hit certain beats and set up things for down the road. If JJ Abrams and Rian Johnson we're told that they had to get the story from Point A to Point B, and that the character arcs had been, in a broad sense, worked out ahead of time then I think people would have a much better opinion of the Sequel Trilogy.

Another thing that, at least for me, really brought down the new movies was over saturation, which I also blame the MCU for. You see, the Marvel movies, while all set in the same universe, are all over the place as far as genre goes. Iron Man is an action/adventure with a good dose of comedy, The First Avenger is a period piece, Ant Man is a heist movie, etc. Star Wars is space fantasy, maybe with a few things bolted on, but that's basically it. Multiple MCU movies coming out in a year works, because all of them have a different flavor. A new Star Wars movie coming out every year, and sometimes after only 6 months, is the same thing over and over. That really can wear people out.

Maybe I'm in "get off my lawn mode", but I remember when a new Star Wars movie was special, an event to be looked forward to. Even the Prequels, which I still like less than the Disney movies, only came out once every 3 years. That was long enough to digest what had come before and make up theories about what was coming out. Of course, I still haven't seen Captain Marvel, Endgame, or Far From Home, so it's not just Star Wars that I have the issue with. While I understand the business need for Disney to get back it's investment (which, as a stockholder, I'm thankful for), there's something to be said for holding off and letting the audience breath a bit. I think the declining box office has as much to do with the audience saying, "What, ANOTHER Star Wars movie?" as the "no one steering the ship" story issues.

Your mileage may vary, but that's how I see it. A bit of a firmer hand at Lucasfilm and more downtime between films can only help Star Wars. And that's not to say that you can't have new content. The Mandalorian, Resistance, and the last season of Clone Wars has shown that people will still watch new Star Wars, let's just give the movies a chance to be special again.

Thursday, April 9, 2020

Book Recommendation - I Am C-3PO

Last night I finished reading I Am C-3PO by, you guessed it, Anthony Daniels. If, like me, you are a member of Generation Star Wars, then I would highly recommend this book. It's a series of stories that goes, mostly, in chronological order about Mr. Daniels experiences in being a part of the Star Wars Saga. One of the more eye-opening things is just how hard it was to be in the original Threepio suit, as it was made of fiberglass and not just heavy, but painful, to wear.

There's a good deal of behind the scenes in how movies were and are made. Going from fully realized sets to 90% green screen and back seems like a very interesting journey, with good and bad points to each. That's the kind of stuff that I'm really interested in, but then I'm the guy that has watched all of the extra materials on all of the Lord of the Rings DVD's (much to my wife's consternation).


Thursday, April 2, 2020

Space Battleship Yamato: The Classic Collection

I recently finished reading Space Battleship Yamato: The Classic Collection, which is the comic book version of the original Star Blazers. As a HUGE fan of the anime, I really wanted to read this and, on one level I'm glad I did. On another, not so much.

You see, the manga was being developed in parallel with the anime, and it shows. If you read this without having seen the original show, then you'd have quite a few moments where you'd say, "Wait, where did THAT come from?" One of the most jarring is that, at the end of the first part, two ships leave Iscandar after the Yamato does. The first is Captain Harlock (who is a cyborg space pirate always covered in a shroud) and the second is believed to contain Starsha and Mamoru Kodai (aka Alex Wildstar for us Americans). The odd part there is that the last time we saw Mamoru was in the battle of Pluto where his ship was destroyed. There's no trip to Titan in the manga, where the crew find's Mamoru's ship in the anime, and there's pretty much nothing shown on Iscandar. So this revelation really comes out of nowhere.

I'm sorry to say it, but this collection is more "tell but don't show". Many of the iconic scenes from the anime are either missing all together, or are mentioned as "We'll tell you about that when we get back" and then never mentioned again. The story also isn't complete. Yes, the Earth is saved, but then the second arc featuring the Comet Empire is severely abridged and doesn't even have a conclusion.

I'm sorry to say that I can only recommend this to people who are already Star Blazers fans, and then only as a curiosity. Personally, I think it's telling that it only took me 3 nights of reading before bed to finish a 644 page manga.

Now, to finish on a high note, here's the opening theme to Star Blazers 2199: