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…most of all?
Well, there are a lot of things in sci-fi that bother me. There are the completely wrong-headed remakes (Godzilla and Lost In Space deserve special mention for extra offensiveness), but that’s true of every genre. There is the over-reliance on special effects over character development, but that happens all the time. There is the fact that James Cameron still works.
But most of all…
…I’d have to say it’s that lousy Luke Skywalker kid. Man, what a whiny little schmuck. He only stops being a complete baby in Jedi, and that film is irrevocably tainted by the presence of Ewoks (and the stupid notion that a *second* Death Star is somehow a *good* idea). I mean, the guy is obviously in his 20s, yet he acts like an emotionally-stunted 15-year old in A New Hope, and doesn’t really improve much in Empire.
…And while we’re at it, what is the deal with Boba Fett? What is the appeal of this guy? Let’s not go into the books or tangential texts, let’s focus on the first 3 films (Episodes IV-VI). Boba Fett doesn’t do *anything*. He gets Han, and gets killed. He’s just a bounty hunter with something like 3 lines total in all of his screen time (which is miniscule at that). It’s like if people went around saying “Dang, that Admiral Ackbar is one cool guy!”
(Just an attempt at levity, and at changing the topic)
–Aleck
[ 21-11-2001: Message edited by: Aleck ]
Actually, I really liked the Lost in Space remake. It had style. It had a darkness to it that was more like the first season of the original television show. (Subsequent seasons were way too campy, IMHO.)
The American Godzilla failed for a couple of reasons. The special effects were good, but I felt that the monster stomped around in the wrong city on the wrong coast. It seems more logical that he would nest in Los Angeles. San Francisco would have been best because there could have been a good rampage scene in Chinatown with hundreds of orientals running and screaming– a perfect nod towards the original Japanese movies. But they really blew it when they infected the movie with little Godzookies imitating velociraptors from Jurassishadit Park.
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Originally posted by Aleck:
There is the fact that James Cameron still works.
Guess who’s producing the Solaris re-make? (*double-shudder*)
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Originally posted by Flamegrape:
Actually, I really liked the Lost in Space remake. It had style. It had a darkness to it that was more like the first season of the original television show. (Subsequent seasons were way too campy, IMHO.)
Eh, I’ve gone into detail about my hatred of this film before, and I still stand by the comments. Can’t stand it. And I like everyone *in* the thing as well. (shrug)
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The American Godzilla failed for a couple of reasons.
Besides the problems you mentioned (especially the JP rehash with the hatchlings), there’s the fact that the Devlin/Emmerlich team continually stated that they would be completely deviating from the “campy” Godzilla that we were familiar with. And what do we get? Half-baked comedy shenanigans with bad Siskel/Ebert imitators, Matthew Broderick, Harry Shearer, Hank Azaria and Vicki Lewis. They completely re-designed Godzilla to the point that he looked like a large iguana (a bad move in general, as Godzilla’s likeness is the most-licensed in the world). They completely changed his mobility (what made Godzilla effective was that he was slow and deliberate, *not* that he moved like a lizard). And, the most offensive, is that they took the concept of Godzilla’s presence and warped it until it was meaningless. Godzilla was a representation of the collective guilt Japan felt at the end of WWII, combined with the collective fear of annihilation. The presence of Godzilla was a kind of divine retribution for threatening to destroy the world. The best Godzilla films are all about this (from the original few films to the Heisei series of films), but this one basically states “well, we can’t allow America to be at any way responsible for this, so we’re gonna blame it all on the French (?!?).” The whole point is lost. Resulting in a film that is worse even than Godzilla vs. Megalon.
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Guess who’s producing the Solaris re-make? (*double-shudder*)
As long as he relegates himself to producing the film, and doesn’t try to take creative control over it (jeeze…I just referred to James Cameron and used the word “creative”…(shudder)), then I’m okay. Just cough up the dough, Cameron, and stay away from the set.
–Aleck
quote:
Originally posted by Aleck:
…most of all?Well, there are a lot of things in sci-fi that bother me. There are the completely wrong-headed remakes (Godzilla and Lost In Space deserve special mention for extra offensiveness), but that’s true of every genre. There is the over-reliance on special effects over character development, but that happens all the time. There is the fact that James Cameron still works.
But most of all…
…I’d have to say it’s that lousy Luke Skywalker kid. Man, what a whiny little schmuck. He only stops being a complete baby in Jedi, and that film is irrevocably tainted by the presence of Ewoks (and the stupid notion that a *second* Death Star is somehow a *good* idea). I mean, the guy is obviously in his 20s, yet he acts like an emotionally-stunted 15-year old in A New Hope, and doesn’t really improve much in Empire.
…And while we’re at it, what is the deal with Boba Fett? What is the appeal of this guy? Let’s not go into the books or tangential texts, let’s focus on the first 3 films (Episodes IV-VI). Boba Fett doesn’t do *anything*. He gets Han, and gets killed. He’s just a bounty hunter with something like 3 lines total in all of his screen time (which is miniscule at that). It’s like if people went around saying “Dang, that Admiral Ackbar is one cool guy!”
(Just an attempt at levity, and at changing the topic)
I myself don’t understand many Star Wars fans’ Boba fetish. Sure, he’s got cool armor, an he’s kinda creepy with the nasty, unfeeling voice, but he’s unbelievibly popular for his peripheral role in the films. His number of lines in The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi is 5, actually. In a poll the “Star Wars Insider” ran he was ranked the second favorite character from the original trilogy, second only to Han Solo.
He’s like the Kai of Star Wars, and he didn’t even take his helmet off! I don’t see why Boba Fett’s so great.Luke Skywalker, on the other hand, seems fine to me. The character is immature in A New Hope, but that’s the idea. He’s a simple person who’s lived a sheltered life in the beginning (in contrast with Han Solo, who is sort of a ready-made hero), but undergoes great spiritual growth over the course of his adventures. In A New Hope he began to follow in his father’s footsteps, to become a like him and thus fulfill his birthright as the son of the Chosen One. In The Empire Strikes Back he is confronted with a dilemma: he can either continue to follow the path of his father (as he now better understands it), or he can go in a new direction. Now he has lost his guide and has to make his own decision for the first time in his life(in the past he had always been pressured into doing something by the situation, or went along with someone else, like his uncle or Obi-Wan). He chooses his own path, and that is what leads him to true greatness. By Return of the Jedi he has achieved arête, perfection. Of course his character started out imperfect, the hero is never great at the beginning of the story. By the way, Luke Skywalker was either 18 or 20 at the time of Star Wars: A New Hope.
James Cameron was great in his prime, but he’s sort of sold out. Gone mainstream. Lost his edge. You know what I mean.
I’ve already posted plenty about what I think of the Lost in Space and Godzilla remakes, so I won’t go into that topic now.
[ 21-11-2001: Message edited by: DalekTek790 ]
quote:
Originally posted by Aleck:
…And while we’re at it, what is the deal with Boba Fett? It’s like if people went around saying “Dang, that Admiral Ackbar is one cool guy!”
I don’t know what the appeal of Boba Fett is, but he just looks and seems cool. As for Admiral “Fishhead” Ackbar, he is one sly and cool mofo.
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