Unhappily Ever After …
I try not to watch shit. I’ll switch off. There are plenty of alternatives. But if it’s something I have an emotional connection to, then I persevere. I know I shouldn’t. But it’s become analogous to self-mutilation. I know it’s wrong, I know it’s bad for me, but I want to – need to – feel some new pain to validate the experience. Watching Star Trek: Picard (2020 – ), I can only think, What unholy shit is this? How can you get everything so wrong? How can you be so oblivious? But why am I surprised? The Disney Star Wars Trilogy is bad. The DC incarnations of Batman and…
Relating to Characters: Part I
The premiere of The Rise of Skywalker (2019) nears. Scuttlebutt around plot leaks are discouraging. One of the scariest is that test audiences laughed at how easily Rey disposed of the Emperor. Sigh. Even if that’s not true, or it is true but has been corrected, I’m not expecting much. Disney’s Star Wars movies have featured an array of unrelatable one-dimensional characters. They have no depth and take no real journey (unless, like Rey, it’s to discover who they are). They’re flash and style with little substance. Just because these characters belong to an extraordinary sci-fantasy premise doesn’t mean they have to be unrelatable. You can create relatability in characters…