Star Wars: The Last Jedi review

Under the steady control of Kathleen Kennedy and J.J. Abrams, this third Star Wars trilogy has built upon the traditions of George Lucas’ mythology and pays homage to the type of fan-service that sells light-sabers at Toys R’ Us. But the director of the latest installment, Rian Johnson of “Looper,” “Brick” fame, plays the storytelling of this new sequel like a bored gamer who decides to break away from the core missions to see how far the boundaries the video-game will go. This isn’t to say that “Star Wars: The Last Jedi” is wildly off-topic or even experimental, but it does play with the expectations of the audience with narrative risks not seen in the franchise since Irvin Kershner’s 1980 sequel, “The Empire Strikes Back."

The story picks up where 2015’s “The Force Awakens” left off; Rey (Daisy Ridley) has found Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) hiding as a hermit on a distant planet. There, she hopes to be trained in the ways of the force by the former Jedi master. Cocky flyboy Poe Dameron (Oscar Isaac) and the reluctant and frightful ex-Stormtrooper Finn (John Boyega) are traveling with the Resistance, trying to survive the intergalactic pursuit of the imperial First Order, which is led by the vengeful Kilo Ren (Adam Driver).

Structurally, many of these story beats are very similar to those built into the plot of “The Empire Strikes Back,” and similarly, this installment wishes to disturb the canon with a few sharp left turns and a few shocking reveals. But rather than making his bed in the comfort of nostalgia, Johnson’s tricky screenplay also challenges Lucas’ classical, Campbellian tropes. Rey’s journey of self-discovery does not lead to self-assuring revelations about her past, and only further complicates her place in this battle between good and evil. Ridley and Driver share several scenes in psychic conflict, in which the characters bridge the bureaucracy of war and destiny to make a deeper connection that defies both of their places in their spiritual and philosophic struggle.  This potentially treasonous relationship is very well acted and is some of the most compelling drama the series has produced thus far.

We’re treated to another side story in which Finn and a young resistance mechanic named Rose (Kelly Marie Tran) travel to a space Casino full of intergalactic one-percenters to find a hacker who can help them stop the First Order from being able to track their ships whilst escaping in light-speed. This mission, while bouncy and played like a high-stakes movie heist, is also subverted and woven into the greater peril of Leia's command (Carrie Fisher) and difficult decisions made by her Vice Admiral Holdo (Laura Dern).

Johnson’s visual take on the material is a little left of center as well, and the set design is often beautifully stark and minimal. His work with the actors is generous and thankfully he gives aged performers like Fisher and Hamill more to do in the story than to simply act as camera-winking cameos. This is a terrific action film and great advancement of the Star Wars canon.

Some long-time fans have bucked to the risks Johnson took with his entry, but what I appreciate the most about “The Last Jedi” is that, while it’s a half hour too long and some of the humor doesn’t land, this is one of the most story-driven installments the series has ever seen. Rather than serving a classical hero’s journey about good versus evil, the characters are now forced to move forward with a plot that has greater ties to their unpredictable motivations.

Grade: B+

Originally published in the Idaho State Journal/Dec-2017

Listen to this episode of Jabber and the Drone to hear more conversation about "The Last Jedi"

X-Men: Apocalypse review

20^th Century Fox’s X-Men series has a been one of the longest running and most volatile of Hollywood’s plentiful superhero franchises. When director Bryan Singer helmed the first two entries around the turn of the century his objective was to naturalize the pulp materials his movies were based on and to internalize the comic book’s over-the-top sci-fi premise into a relatable political allegory about governmental oppression and systemic bigotry. Since then, the X-Films have been passed along to many directors and many writers and the sincerity of its themes have been gradually muddied by competing aesthetic choices, bad screenplays and a timeline that’s tangled itself into more knots than a pocketed pair of earbuds.  

When Singer returned to the property for 2014’s “X-Men: Days of Future Past” he had of lot of narrative housecleaning to get back to his original vision, but was still able to carefully land his albatross of a time-travel plot with all toes touching the ground.  The promise of “Days of Future Past” was that the slate was now clean and the films going forward no longer had to answer for the mistakes of the past, that’s why the latest entry, “X-Men: Apocalypse,” is all the more disappointing, as it relapses into many of the same inconsistencies found within its weaker predecessors.

Moving ten years forward from the events of the last film, this installment sees our heroes faced by an ancient mutant named Apocalypse (Oscar Isaac) brought back from the dead from the depths of the pyramids of Egypt. Once this god-like entity is restored he is put on a path to destroy the earth of human dominion by recruiting four powerful soldiers who are sympathetic to his cause. After Magneto (Michael Fassbender) is ripped away from his newly established anonymous life in eastern Europe he joins Apocalypse alongside a young Storm (Alexandra Shipp), Angel (Ben Hardy), and Psylocke (Olivia Munn).  When Professor Xavier (James McAvoy) catches wind of this new force he assembles a new team to keep his school safe, as well as the future of the world as we know it.  

This film somehow manages to suffer simultaneous from being too much and not enough. There are too many characters and too many subplots to keep track of and yet none of them are really explored with enough depth or purpose to justify their inclusion. The heroes such as Beast (Nicholas Hoult), Cyclops (Tye Sheridan), Quicksilver (Evan Peters) and Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence) are explore to some capacity and have some stakes in the plot but the script lacks a sense of focus and drive by its constant shifting of the story’s center of consciousness. Is this supposed to about Mystique trying to save the soul of her mentor and friend Magneto? Is it about Cyclops’ journey to find belonging and responsibility within the group as a new student? Is it a political allegory about the arms race of the 80s? None of these plot ideas are fully flushed out and much of the film feels like a poorly paced build up to a non-climax.  

Secondly this movie suffers from a style that is far campier than we’ve been treated to from this series thus far, with flashier set-pieces, hokier dialogue—courtesy of hack screenwriter Simon Kinberg—and ridiculous costuming.  The film’s 3D minded cinematography heightens every battle scene into cartoony weightlessness. Because of this, the action sequences are less vital and less tactile and the visuals appear flattened and cheap when projected in two dimensions.

Still, McAvoy and Fassbender are great actors and there are moments of candy-coated pop filmmaking to be found in this mess, along with the DNA of the comic book’s higher minded ideas as well as Singers’ passion for minority social justice. “X-Men: Apocalypse” isn’t the worst film in the franchise—“X-Men Origins: Wolverine” still has that distinction—but this material has clearly become tired and strained from being worked and reworked over the last 15 years and as a result th movie never settles into a comfortable mode of its own.   

Grade: C-

Originally Published in the Idaho State Journal/May-2016

Listen to this week's episode of Jabber and the Drone to hear more conversation about "X-Men: Apocalypse."

Star Wars: The Force Awakens review

When George Lucas sold the rights to “Star Wars” along with his company Lucasfilm to Disney and it was announced that Spielberg’s spiritual successor J.J. Abrams, of “Super 8” and the recent “Star Trek” films, would relaunch the series with an additional numerical installment, devotees were instantly optimistic about the possibility of the series redeeming itself from the dampened legacy of the franchise. “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” is as much a soft-reboot as it is the seventh episode of Lucas’ grand saga. Many familiar elements are reintroduced through new characters and the old cast members are brought back to pass the ceremonial lightsaber to a new generation—a younger generation of fans who learned most of what they know about “Star Wars” minutia from online reddit forums, long-winded bloggy take-downs of the much-maligned prequels, as well as various memes, sketches and remix videos.

Forty years of real-time have passed since Luke Skywalker destroyed the Empire, Darth Vader was killed and Han Solo, Princess Leia and the rebels celebrated their victory. Turns out they celebrated too early because the Empire has reformed as an aggressive totalitarian militia known as the First Order and after failing to train a new generation of Jedi, Luke has gone missing. In his absence, a new Darth Vader wannabee named Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) has led the hunt for the remaining rebel forces, dead-set on finding Luke before the other rebels can get to him. A small soccer-ball-shaped droid called BB-8 has a piece of the galactic map that leads to Luke’s whereabouts but is separated from the resistance when his master, a fighter pilot named Poe Dameron (Oscar Isaac), is arrested by the First Order after a battle on a desert planet known as Jakku. It is then up to a resilient scavenger named Rey (Daisy Ridley) and a disgruntled storm trooper in hiding named Fin (John Boyega) to bring the droid back to the rebel base before Kylo Ren and First Order discover the secrets they hold.

Much of the appeal of this film is in its attempts to conjure the aesthetics and nostalgia of the original trilogy. “Empire Strikes Back” writer Lawrence Kasdan helped Abrams pen the screenplay and many of the high-stakes adventuring, the jokey one-liners and the scrappy aerial dog fights that were missing from Lucas’ stoic prequels are restored in this exciting but sometimes frustratingly familiar plot. The younger cast of characters are genuinely likable and interesting. They fit very neatly into previous “Star Wars” archetypes but the actors fill their parts out with a lot of idiosyncratic charm and self-deprecating wit. Likewise, Harrison Ford’s return as Han Solo remains surprisingly fresh and energetic, considering the age of the actor and the grizzled joylessness of his later performances.

The special effects are appropriately updated, using a healthy blend of computer generated visuals along with real sets, real locations and tangible props and creature designs. The movie isn’t exactly short but it moves along quickly and it milks those crowd pleasing close-calls in such a way that even the most jaded of fanboys will be unable to resist a near-constant grin.  And yet, even after thoroughly enjoying myself twice in the theater—yes, I’ve already seen it twice—I can’t help but lament how narratively unoriginal and pandering a lot of this feels. Many plot points directly mirror those of the first three films and many functions of the new and old characters serve to move the story with almost the exact same outcomes. Death Stars, rescue missions, mysterious prophecies and Greek familial tragedy are all tapped again for this installment and carried out without any subversion of those dusty Campbellian tropes. As such, it’s almost impossible to be surprised by this movie (or perhaps the future of this entire franchise) once you realize where it’s headed.

Thee future of creative cinema aside, “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” is undeniably a good time at the movies. New audiences will have a worthy jumping on point to seed their future obsessions and seasoned fans will likely enjoy the throwbacky glee of Abrams’ childlike warmth towards the mythology. But it is it’s also undeniable that Abrams is as much a fanboy as he is a fan and has a difficult time distancing himself far enough from the source material to update it or add to it in a truly bold or progressive way.

Grade: B

Originally published in the Idaho State Journal/Dec-2015

Listen to more discussion about "The Force Awakens" and "The Big Short" on this week's Jabber and the Drone podcast.