Being a Stars Wars Inbetweener

It’s weird being born in 1981. I missed the first two Star Wars films being released in cinemas as I was not even born (inconsiderate parents) and I was only two when Return of the Jedi was released. I’m too old to be a part of the prequel generation but neither am I one of those millions of kids who lined up outside cinemas to see the original trilogy on the big screen.

The first Star Wars film I saw at the cinema was The Phantom Menace when I was nearly 18 years old. I wasn’t young enough to want a lightsaber or Jar Jar Binks doll and I definitely didn’t queue up for hours and hours to see the film on opening night. And what is more, I was not keen on catching Attack of the Clones in the cinema and am bloody glad I didn’t.

When The Force Awakens trailer was released earlier in November 2014, I was chatting to my 16/17/18 year old media students about it. I realised that they were born in 1997 or 1998 and that most of them were too young to have even seen the prequel trilogy in the cinema. Many of them said they loved Star Wars when they were younger but hadn’t seen the films in a cinema. What is really crazy to me is that many of them experienced the Star Wars saga, not in the order of their release (4, 5, 6, 1, 2, 3) but in chronological order, as George Lucas possibly wishes we all had.

So as an early 80s baby I find myself in the strange situation of being between Star Wars trilogies; a Star Wars Inbetweener if you will. I’m not one of the uber-dedicated, super-geeky fanboys or one of the legions of filmmakers like Kevin Smith, Edgar Wright and J. J. Abrams who worship the original trilogy and have been inspired by it. I saw Star Wars first on TV, probably in 1987. I then had it taped on VHS so I could watch it over and over again. Of course, it was just ‘Star Wars’ to me; none of this A New Hope nonsense. It took me a long time to get through Empire and Jedi as I found Empire strangely off putting as a child. It was much later as a teen that I was strongly advised that I had to complete the trilogy, Ewoks and all.

I didn’t see the 20^th anniversary George Lucas re-releases in the cinema but I did buy them on VHS. I was mildly excited to see The Phantom Menace, but not as much as those crazy-obsessed, heading-for-middle-aged men who grew up witnessing the majesty of the original trilogy on the big screen. It’s strange to be between fan bases when so many people that are older than me and younger than me claim Star Wars to be the biggest and best franchise ever. The fans seem to own Star Wars. Anyone born in the early 70s will have grown up with these films as the definitive blockbusters of their generation. Anyone born in the early 90s will also likely feel slightly similar. Us early 80s babies are just stuck somewhere in the middle, floating around aimlessly in limbo.

What is more, I was too young to see Terminator 1 and 2, Die Hard 1 and 2, Robocop 1 and 2, Back to the Future and A Nightmare on Elm Street at the cinema. Despite not getting to see Back to the Future in a cinema (as I was only 3 when it was released), I still consider myself the Back to the Future generation. Back to the Future Part 2 was the film that blew my mind on the big screen. Had I not seen the first film on video beforehand, I’m sure it would be a different story. Even if I’m stuck in Star Wars limbo, thank God I’m part of the video generation!

The reason I write all this is that I always felt kind of alone in this Star Wars apathy. It seemed like most people my age loved Star Wars just as much as the fans who are a decade older than them. But then I spoke to a guy the other day who is also 33 and he said he felt the same. Star Wars just wasn’t his thing... he was too young for the hype of the original trilogy to have affected him and too old to have cared much about the prequels.

Do any other early 80s babies out there feel strangely disconnected from the whole Star Wars phenomenon or is it just me?

More on Star Wars:

This is not the Star Wars The Force Awakens Trailer

Rejected Star Wars Episode VII Titles 

Star Wars Episode VII Title Confirmed: The Force Awakens 

More Star Wars Sequels and Spin Offs Every Summer 

The day I met new Star Wars star John Boyega

 

 

Monsters University Review

I'll start this by admitting I'm not a huge fan of Monsters Inc. There I said it. Toy Story, The Incredibles and Wall-E are the three pinnacles of Pixar to me. So Monsters University was not particularly appealing to me from the start. It's not that I dislike Monsters Inc, I just thought it was a wonderful film for children but lacked much for the adults in the audience.

Mike and Sulley are funny and the set pieces were fun but a sequel or a prequel would not be welcomed by me personally. Monsters University sees Mike and Sulley enrolling at the college for monsters in training, preparing to becomes Scarers and make their way out into the big bad world of terrifying little children in their sleep at night.

It is When Mikey Met Sulley if you like, the beginning of a bromance that we all know pretty much how it will end. There are references and characters from the original (beyond the central pair) who pop up playfully and the back to school coming of age vibe works quite well. The supporting cast at the frat house that Mike and Sulley join add some much needed fun after the set up focuses almost solely on Mike and provides a lack of laughs.

The story is completely predictable until a last minute shift into the real world plays brilliantly with slasher conventions in a secluded bunkhouse at a camp for little girls. The stuff that comes before it on campus is so bright and colourful, the monster design so seen-it-all-before and harmless (except Dean Hardscrabble) that when it finally gets to the really creepy stuff with Mike and Sulley becoming the hunted, it is an incredibly welcome detour.

Monsters University is heavily reliant on slapstick and the mildest of peril. It will endlessly amuse children but adults are likely to hope for more witty banter and will welcome the addition of the Oozma Kappa frat house team who steal laughs and heart from the central pair. The relationship between Mike and Sulley never feels too truly stretched but their overcoming of their personal problems provides a satisfying conclusion and ties things up nicely.

My main problem with Monsters University is the same as it was with Monsters Inc. These monsters are just too damn fluffy, cuddly and colourful for my liking. That may be the point; to show kids that monsters have hearts too and are really nothing to be scared of, but I just wish there were more monsters like the Helen Mirren voiced hideous Dean Hardscrabble out there.

Watch the trailer:

Recent reviews at I Love That Film:

Man of Steel Review

This is the End Review 

Fast and Furious 6 Review

Ruby Sparks Review

The Look of Love Review 

21 & Over Review

Iron Man 3 Review

Olympus Has Fallen Review

Spring Breakers Review

Prequel gets Sequel

Big news today!  Bond 23 gets a title... wait for it... Skyfall!  Wow!  As usual this means nothing to me.  It's just another random naming of a Bond adventure that will inevitably lead to another completely average theme song and a much more interesting trippy opening credit sequence featuring sillhouetted women posing suggestively with guns... or something.  Slightly more promising than the underwhelming title is the news that Javier Bardem will be following his creepy turn in No Country for Old Men with a stab at a Bond villain.  Oh and apparently Bond may have a beard in this one.    Being directed by Sam Mendes could be reason to get very excited or it could be a reason to go; Bond? The director of American Beauty? WTF???

Forget Bond.  The real big bit of news for today is the signing of Andy Serkis to the Rise of the Planet of the Apes sequel.  Recently I suggested here that this might be the first prequel ever to not suck.  After getting all excited by the trailer, I was not disappointed by the film and actually really hoped that there would be more to come in this franchise.  The prequel spent so much time setting up a great character in Caesar (played perfectly using performance capture technology by Andy Serkis), that it only just got to the rising of the apes in the last few minutes of the film.  The scope for the sequel is epic.  I can't wait to see how these apes are going to bring an end to the rule of us pesky humans on this planet.  It should be two hours of (guerilla/gorilla) warfare!

The signing of Serkis means the return of the prequel's anti-hero Caesar.  This is a character easy to empathise with and root for, the CGI playing second fiddle to Serkis' motion-captured performance.  Go read this excellent post on why Serkis should get an Oscar nomination for his work!  It remains to be seen if James Franco will return, though despite being the hero and a great actor to watch, it was Caeser's story that needed to be continued as he leads the revolution.

Anyway, despite the ever increasing reliance on franchises, sequels, prequels and the ever-diminishing originality in Hollywood, this is a sequel to a prequel that will hopefully be a pleasure to see rise at the box office.

Check out Serkis at work in the video below:

Rise of the Prequels

Finally a truly decent prequel! Rise of the Planet of the Apes has risen to the challenge and begun the long process of eradicating the memories of all those nasty, disappointing, pointless cash-in prequels that have littered multiplexes, particularly since the Star Wars prequels crushed the childhood dreams of so many.

With a number of cool nods to the original and an origin story that feels like it needed telling, ROTPOTA does not disappoint in starting the story of how Planet Earth became the Planet of the Apes. In fact, the story is set up so carefully and with such a brilliant and engaging character in Caesar, the revolution only begins in the last half hour of the prequel.

Hopefully this means there can be a sequel to this prequel that deals with the war between apes and humans and furthers the story of how humans were crushed. However it could be that the writers of ROTPOTA decided to end the film where they did because they realized that it would get further and further into ridiculousness as they tried to keep showing apes battling and beating humans armed with machine guns, helicopters and tanks.

Anyway, no matter whether the story is too far-fetched for you, the character of Caesar has to go down as one of the most sympathetic antiheroes of all time. Never have I wanted the ‘villain’ to win so much in a film before! Never have I wanted to see us humans crushed by an enemy this badly!

Thanks again to another stunning bit of captured performance from Andy Serkis and the effects people at WETA (following Gollum and King Kong), Caesar is brilliant; filled with recognizable emotions, intelligence and finally, understandably raging against the machine.

Prequels have a bad name for a good reason. Try and come up with a list of 10 good prequels! It’s not easy and many would say impossible. Godfather Part 2 had elements of a prequel but is also a sequel. Temple of Doom is a prequel but is a completely different story to Raiders of the Lost Ark. Revenge of the Sith had it’s moments; the burning of Anakin, the rise of Vader and The Phantom Menace had the pod-race but really I’m clutching at straws.

On the other hand you have Hannibal Rising, Leatherface: The Beginning and Attack of the Clones. I shiver at the mention of their names.

So maybe with ROTPOTA and X-Men: First Class, a change is coming. Perhaps this is the dawn of the quality prequel. Or am I being unfair? What have I missed? Are there other great prequels out there? Do the reboots of Star Trek and Batman count as prequels? You tell me…