• Inside Entertainment,  Media Rants

    Where does The Rise of Skywalker Go?

    Where does The Rise of Skywalker go? Given the New Trilogy’s slipshod construction, what can they offer us? A good friend, Tom, suggested the use of ‘Skywalker’ in the title will reference what the protagonists (I refuse to label them ‘our heroes’) call their new resistance. Because, yay, that’s so cool. Tom’s probably right. (If only you could use your power for good!) Possibly, Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) wasn’t intended to be in this film, but given Carrie Fisher’s untimely passing, the filmmakers need some anchor to the Original Trilogy. We hear Luke’s narration in the teaser. We see Leia (Carrie Fisher) hug Rey (Daisy Ridley), which could be the…

  • Inside Entertainment,  Old vs New

    The Empire Strikes Back vs The Last Jedi

    Continuing the comparison of Luke’s and Rey’s respective journeys, I should preface that I’m not a fan of the new trilogy (or any of the existing new movies). They’re endemic of today’s blockbuster: lots of action, and the protagonist is usually brilliant just because the story needs them to be. There’s no character development. There’s no relatability. There’s no journey. People might point at other characters to suggest they can be the same, e.g. Superman is perfect. He’s not. In Superman (1978), Lex Luthor (Gene Hackman) outsmarts him and puts a big kryptonite necklace on him. Does Superman (Christopher Reeve) just shrug it off? No. Miss Teschmacher (Valerie Perrine) has…