The Rantings of Pab Sungenis
There’s talk of another Supergirl movie (since the first one did so damn well, I guess </sarcasm>) and a lot of discussions about who would play Supergirl.
I came across this photo at a rabid right-wing site I usually avoid, but someone mentioned my name in the thread this picture was in, so Google caught it. The shirt she’s wearing sealed the deal for me. Obviously, she can’t play Supergirl today, but if the movie had been done several decades back….
Tuesday Weld IS Kara Zor-El!
My partner Bryan (see footnote 1),
Bryan E-Mailed RuPaul about how he preferred Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World and found similar parallels in that book. (In fact, Bryan and I were discussing the prescience of Huxley in one of those “intellectual-talks-while-highway-driving” the other day.) RuPaul wrote back, and Bryan and he have now agreed to read each other’s books.
For those of you who have never read one those books, I suggest making that book your summer reading. And if you haven’t read either of them, then read them both. They’re short, and quick reads, but thought provoking. I’ll be happy to discuss either or both with anyone.
I’m especially interested in Bryan’s reactions to Animal Farm. As a student of history, I knew who Orwell was pointing at with each of those characters. It will be interesting to see what connections Bryan (who looks at my love of history the way one would usually look at a dead puppy sitting on top of a Friendly’s® Jim Dandy® sundae) draws, and what “voices” he hears when he reads Napoleon, Snowball, Boxer, etc.
After the woman had left, he turned to me and in that snarky voice of his, said “why did you call me your partner?” And I said “Well, I didn’t think ‘fuckbuddy’ quite served the occasion.” Since then, I don’t call him my husband, my lover, or the guy I used to fuck and now just live in quiet nonmarital bliss with. I call him my partner. It works.
I love Derek and Romaine. It’s got to be the best program on the radio, and I don’t get a chance to listen to it often enough.
This week, I’ve been able to catch up. I’ve hooked up one of our two SIRIUS radios to my sound card, set up a timed recording program, and wrote a couple of quick tools in Pascal and Take Command batch language.
Now, sitting on my own private web server, is a home made Derek and Romaine Podcast! Now I can get caught up whenever I want.
The two guaranteed listens on the pod for me now: start the day with Rachel Maddow, and end it with Derek and Romaine. Heaven.
Go through your iPod, Winamp/iTunes library, CD collection, etc. Pick three “guilty pleasure” songs….ones you would normally be embarrassed to admit that you like to listen to. (They could be stupid or sappy, conflict with your image/”rep” etc.) List them in your journal and encourage others to do the same.
Comments are welcome.
Edison Lighthouse – Love Grows (Where Rosemary Goes)
Fairground Attraction – Perfect
The Heights – How Do You Talk To An Angel?
Something you rarely see from me: a friend-only post. Only close friends, not “only LJ friends” can read this one.
Jeffe made a great point about emergency contact information. Since most of you already have this, and the rest of you should. here is my emergency contact information:
Home: (856)794-3893
Work: (856)692-2909
Cell: (856)816-1695
Our next big big Late Night Double Feature picture show at DeMarco Cinemas is coming up….
Starring convicted shoplifter Winona Ryder
and
Starring convicted wanker Paul "Pee Wee Herman" Reubens!
Doors open at 9:30, films start at 10 PM
Don’t miss it!
The early reviews are not promising for Star Wars Episode 3: Revenge Of The Sith. Most of the people I know who have seen it or read the adaptations that are already out there were not impressed.
I’ll reserve judgment until after I’ve seen it myself, but I’m in no hurry. However, thinking about all the negative reaction to Phantom Menace and Attack Of The Clones, and listening to some stuff I unearthed from my morning show in 1999 about the release of Menace, I have to ask myself…were the Star Wars prequels doomed before they were even finished?
I know most of you don’t give a shit about this sort of thing, but for the rest of you….
Let’s examine what these movies had against them from the beginning.
1. We already know the ending,
I know that I’ve often said that you can’t ruin a movie or book for me…sometimes I want to know how it ends so I can chart the progress of the plot. But I’m weird; I know that most people want to be on edge, wondering how things work out. That’s where the first trilogy (well, mostly Empire, but to a lesser degree New Hope) did so well. You never knew what was coming next. And the last 30 minutes of Empire set up so many cliffhangers that you absolutely had to see the next movie to see how it all ended.
This time out, we know how everything ends. All the Jedi except Yoda and Obi-Wan/Ben die. Anakin kills everything that moves. He’s disfigured, and stuck in the ultimate bondage outfit. The Emperor succeeds in seizing ultimate power. Anakin’s two children are sent into hiding to keep them safe. We knew all of this in 1977! Someone could sit out the prequel trilogy completely and not miss a damn thing. There is no compelling need to see how things work out. Thus, a lot of people who didn’t like Phantom Menace could safely sit out Clones. And out of those that were left, a number that didn’t like Episode II won’t feel the need to see Episode III. After all, we know how it ends.
To pull a Gene Siskel (as
2. Villains don’t make good heroes
Anyone who has seen the original trilogy knows that Darth Vader is not an anti-hero. He is a villain, the “black hat” variety of villain appropriately enough. Pure evil. True, he kills the Emperor at the end of Jedi, but that’s not a heroic act; it’s a redemptive act and there’s a major difference. Darth Vader is nothing more nor less than a villain.
Now, let’s examine the man who would become Vader: Anakin Skywalker. Even leaving out the crappy writing and the horrific acting by Jake Lloyd that turned off a lot of people, Anakin is not a sympathetic character. He lets power go to his head. He slaughters an entire village in revenge for his mommy. He’s a total dick, and the only way we could move the story forward is to have Amidala have a thing for bad boys. He’s not an anti-hero, he’s a schmuck!
Again, to pull a Siskel, the real hero of this trilogy should have been Obi-Wan or Qui-Gon. The entire story should have been told from the point of view of the teacher who has to slap down his protege when he goes bad. It would have been a classic tragic hero situation. But Lucas chose to focus on Anakin/Vader because he’s the only character that spans all six parts, and thus we are stuck with an unsympathetic protagonist.
3. The “Big Shoes” Phenomenon.
The classic trilogy were the quintessential Hero’s Journey. (Google that if you don’t know what I’m talking about.) Sure, it was a little hokey and the dialogue was corny, but it was a classic tale and very well plotted. Plus, the first Star Wars completely changed people’s perceptions of science fiction and fantasy films. The special effects completely blew away everything that had been done up to that point, and set a new benchmark that we expected all SFX movies to live up to.
After those first three movies, we had some pretty lofty ideas about what to expect from Star Wars. When the prequel trilogy was announced, we were expecting an epic story and breathtaking, groundbreaking, new SFX. We didn’t really get either out of Phantom Menace, so a lot of us felt let down and disillusioned.
To use another parallel from Sci-Fi, let’s look at the Star Trek franchise. The first series was groundbreaking. The Next Generation relaunched the basic formula with better-formed characters and new effects. Deep Space Nine gave us some of the most well-rounded characters ever in sci-fi TV (some even say any dramatic TV) and note-perfect storytelling. We had come to expect a lot out of Star Trek. And then, we got Voyager, with its cardboard characters, contrived plots, lack of meaningful conflict, and poor storytelling. Millions of fans were disillusioned. And by the time Enterprise launched, most of the fans were gone. Plus, prequels don’t work. See #1 above.
4. Anticipation
A lot of fans thought Jedi was a let-down. Third acts tend to be, to be honest, because you’re catching the balls you threw into the air in the first two acts. But we only had to wait three years for it. Now imagine if ten years had passed between Empire and Jedi. Our anticipation would have built to a fever pitch and the let-down would have been worse.
We waited sixteen years for Phantom Menace, We kept waiting and waiting and waiting, and by the time the new movie came out, our expectations were so high and our eagerness so keen that absolutely nothing would have satisfied us. A new Star Wars movie had become a Holy Grail; read the Arthurian legends to find out what happens when you find what you’ve been questing for for ages.
Think about what would have happened if The Phantom Menace, with appropriately scaled down effects, had been released in 1986. It wouldn’t have been a big big hit, but we wouldn’t have been as disappointed.
Don’t believe me? Try turning off your brain and re-watch Phantom Menace. Forget that we know all these characters and how the story ends. It’s a passable film; not great, but passable. If it didn’t have Star Wars Episode I in front of the title, and everyone’s preconceptions, it might have launched a successful franchise. As it ended up, it killed an already successful franchise because someone [cough, Lucas, cough] fell afoul of those four major principles, and killed the golden goose.
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