David Vining's Blog, page 199

Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith

George Lucas has said that when he had asserted that the entire prequel trilogy was planned in the era of the original trilogy, he actually only meant the story captured in Revenge of the Sith. Everything before that was less clear to him, and it feels very obvious in retrospect. The first two prequels were searching for a story with certain thematic elements taking center stage for moments at a time. The third one allows the viewer to look back over the first two films with a new lens to...

Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones

It’s amazing to think that Lucas could have addressed some of the largest issues with the first prequel head on, but still managed to somehow make a worse movie overall. Attack of the Clones has a clearer narrative with stronger characters, but the clear narrative is populated with idiotic characters who act more like robots with incomplete instructions on how to love like humans do. It’s amazing to think that George Lucas ever got married, considering the romance in this film. It feels more...

Reading positive reviews of Episode I is like looking into the mind of aliens

“But as an adult, I can’t even fathom NOT loving this: it’s a masterpiece in the highest order and one of the last great spectacles of the 20th Century, if not the absolute best. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: the universe of Star Wars is an experiment, a risk, that Lucas took on when making “Star Wars” in 1977 and with his Prequels, it’s him pushing the boundaries even more than he did in the Originals: technology has improved and Lucas could expand upon his already masterful...

Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace

With the advantage of having the whole trilogy, it becomes obvious what Lucas wanted to accomplish thematically across all three movies. This helps pull out individual elements of this film as more important than the others regarding the greater story, but they’re minor elements in a story that shoots off in every direction, never really establishes much in the way of character, and just kind of meanders from one action setpiece to the next. It also doesn’t make those individual elements any...

Star Wars Episode VI: The Return of the Jedi

I hadn’t seen this movie in a very long time. In fact, as a kid, this was my favorite of the Star Wars movies. It wasn’t the Ewoks, but, I think, the whole climax and every other action scene. It is the most actiony of the original trilogy. However, upon my revisit, I find myself with a far more muted reaction, and it kind of makes me sad.

The movie has no real dramatic structure. It seems to start in a similar way to The Empire Strikes Back with an extended sequence that feels a bit removed...

Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back

A proposed alternate subtitle: The Humiliation of Luke Skywalker.

There are two main ways to follow up a genre film. The first was perfectly encapsulated by Aliens in the “bigger is better” school. You expand the stakes, scale, and number of character to create a bigger, bolder experience. The second is to not go bigger, but to go deeper. The Empire Strikes Back might be the best example of that way to go.

The Empire Strikes Back actually feels a good bit smaller in scale than the original ...

Movie News – Week of 12/9

News that caught my eye:

Anthony Hopkins says actors are ‘pretty stupid’ and admits he doesn’t watch ‘green screen films’

This tickles me.

Mena Massoud: After ‘Aladdin’ Made $1 Billion, I Still Couldn’t Get an Audition

Quick question: DidAladdin make a billion dollars because people flocked to see the no-name star or because it was a recognizable property that everyone had ‘member berries for?

Star Wars‘ Kathleen Kennedy on the Long Road to Ending the Skywalkers’ Story

“But the important...

Star Wars

It’s amazing how this movie still works as well as it does. I think there are two main components to the original Star Wars‘s success as a film. The first is Lucas’ embrace of Joseph Campbell’s model of mythic storytelling. He utilizes the archetypes Campbell built so cleanly and the narrative structure so clearly that the core story of the film resonates easily with audiences. The second is how the story gets integrated into the largely implied larger universe of Star Wars.

The core story...

Buddy Buddy

#25 in my Ranking of Billy Wilder movies.

This is such a sad way for the great Billy Wilder to end his career. After everything he made, he’d never made a bad film until this. He’d had less than successful ones, but never one that was actually outright bad. Until this, his final film. Some filmmakers goes out with one last great stroke, like Kurosawa making Ran or Bergman making Saraband. Billy Wilder went out with a bad film because he wanted to work with Walter Matthau and Jack Lemmon one...

Fedora

#23 in my Ranking of Billy Wilder movies.

If you don’t see the twist coming from a mile away, then this might be the first movie you’ve ever seen. It’s obvious, and a bit frustrating that the movie holds onto that secret so long, but it does get revealed at the halfway point allowing the rest of the film to focus on more interesting things. It’s not Wilder’s finest moment, but it’s good little mystery and characters study.

The casting of William Holden as Barry Detweiler feels completely...